My Running Mentor

I figured out who my running mentor is. Last night I didn't get to run, because I spent the night with the garage door repairman. I felt bad that I was slacking, and this guy came to mind.

If the picture isn't above, just click on the name below.

Phil Hartman ~ Bill Clinton Funny Jokes at JibJab

A Chiseled Body

I love this piece of art outside the local fitness club. It's what we are all trying to accomplish. Making over our bodies with diet and exercise.




I didn't PR at the half marathon, but I did get a PR in the weight department. On Sunday I weighed in at 212. The lowest I've been since I started running back in June of 2006.

Tonight I wanted to see if I could run 3 miles at the pace that I was running last November. My PR for a 5k was at the Las Vegas Turkey Trot. I ran at a pace of 9:49.

Tonight like you can see in the chart below, I ran at a 10:56 pace. I got a little work to do. My first mile was at 10:05, but then I started to fade. I have three 5k's in November, so I am hoping that I can make one of them a PR.

I, also, have 2 10k's. It'd be nice to make a PR there too. I'll need to get below 1:07:59. At the half I did the first 10k in 1:09:22. But, it was down hill.

November is PR month!

Nutrition @ the Half Marathon

I was happy with my fueling for the HM. On Friday I ate normally. Dinner was pork chops, broccoli and potatoes. A Pumpkin Cobler for dessert with whip cream. I had some carbs for breakfast too.

Then I had Nuun in my water during the run and two GU's. I never felt gassed during the run. My endurance level isn't were I'd like it, but it wasn't due to a lack of Carbs.

The Hat

Does anyone know? On a lot of my long runs my hat gets drenched in sweat. The sweat leaves a sodium ring, the white stuff. You can see it in the picture. Does this mean that I'm getting enough electrolytes with the Nuun? Or does it mean something else?

Enough about sweaty gear. I did a light run tonight. 2.15 miles in the neighborhood. Ran the whole way, eventhough my feet still hurt a bit and my legs felt tight.

Check out the negative splits.

And Congratulations to JavaMom, the newest Quarterman Triathlete.

And Congratulations to The RunningKnitter, the newest Half Marathoner.

Tour de Donut

I found a bike ride I really want to do. The winner ate 24 donuts during the race.

Phoenix YMCA Half Marathon

That's the long sleeve tee you get and my bid number. I paid the morning of the race, so getting a two digit number was pretty cool. There's probably 300 halfers and the same number of 5k'ers running. I saw bib #1 on his way back in. I was jealous. Sort of.

This picture doesn't do the line to get into the park justice. It was a bit of a traffic jam and I was afraid I was going to be late. I made it with time to spare. At the registration table, the lady said my name and Ried, Life Strides was sitting next to her. He said Hi. I knew he was going to be there, but I was already in the zone. I wish I could of had more time to talk with Ried. I'm not conversational right before a race. Check out Ried's report, it has pics of the start.

The YMCA Half Marathon bills itself as the oldest continuous footrace in Arizona. Going on 40 years now. Wyatt Earp starts things off with a real shot gun start. Wyatt is a great great great (I don't know how many greats) grandson of the famous Wyatt Earp.

I started in the back with a gentleman that had a Aramco Houston Half Marathon shirt on. We discussed that race and how wonderful it is. He really recommends it.

This years race had about 1 mile of double track trail running. Much better than the park road to start things off. I tried to take a picture but it was still too early with not enough light. But, to see that long string of runners on the desert trail was pretty cool. We started the race at around 57 degrees. We'd finish around 75. A nice pleasant day for running.

I knew this wouldn't be a PR day. I was hoping it wouldn't be a PW (Personal Worst) day. And as you can see with the splits, the downhill and my speed work lately paid off. The first five miles were all under 11:24. I ended up eating a GU at the 3 mile mark and the 6 mile mark. My gut told me that I didn't want to eat anything else on the back end of this race. My split at 6.2 miles was 1.09.22. Just one minute and 23 seconds away from a PR for the 10k. I continued for the next three miles to get splits just over 12.

Then slowly, I took longer walk breaks and the splits crept up into the 13's and 14's. Mile 11 was the start of the hill back up to the finish. It's not a steep hill. I kept telling myself it wasn't a hill at all. But, I ended up walking a lot of it. With about 1 mile left there were two other runners near me. One lady was running her first half. I told her she need to do the Rock and Roll half in January. She looked at me like I was crazy. Do this Again?

The other lady went off course twice. We had to yell at her to keep her running on course. She kept ahead of me and would run whenever I would run. It was one of those things, if you walk I'll walk, but I want to beat you. With about 100 yards to go, I broke out into my finish kick. A full sprint. Garmin said I was under a 3 minute per mile pace at the end. I passed her, but I just like to sprint at the finish and would have even if no one was in front of me.

My final unofficial Garmin time was 2:43:25, about 6 minutes faster than last year, same race. I'm ok with that. It's a tough finish and I'm not really prepared to run a half at this point. This is all part of my training for the 'real half', The PF Chang's Rock and Roll Half in January.

So, this was a great race to do for the second time. So, in 22 months time I have done one full marathon and 7 halfs. Half Marathon #8 is early December and it will either be the Fiesta Bowl Half in Scottsdale or the Tucson Half about 1.5 hours from home. Then #9 will be the Rock and Roll Half.

A Much Better Run

I'm not a bumper sticker kind of guy, but I did add these recently to my Honda Pilot. I saved a space under the half marathon oval to add a 'x6' to indicate how many I've run. But, then I thought maybe that's a bit much. What do you think? Should I add it or not?

Tonight's run was better. I took in a bit of carbs at lunch and a little more at dinner. Then proceeded to run two splits of 10:31 and 10:38. Made it past 1.8 and never felt like I would just sit in the gutter and wait for a ride. I did take a short walk break at 2.45 miles, but then took it home at a 11:17 pace. Now lets hope I'm not putting on pounds. Tomorrow I will eat a normal amount of carbs and then I'll run the half marathon Saturday morning.

It's the YMCA Half that I ran last year. It starts at the highest elevation on the course and then goes south to the canal. Maybe a mile and a half of downhill running. It's an out and back, so what you get in the beginning you have to give back at the end. I ran it last year in 2:49:30 and the hill at the end did me in. I think I can beat that this year if I GU at miles 3, 6, 9 and maybe 12. I'll be using nuun in my water too. My best half was last year's Fiesta Bowl and I did that in 2:27:41

ID when you run

You're out running with no ID. A car hits you and you lay in the gutter unconcious, in a strange city. A stranger calls 9-1-1. The EMT's get there. As your spouse waits for you at the Holiday Inn 2 miles away, the strangers now in your life wonder who you are and who they can contact.

Carry your driver's license and they can contact the DMV in your state. They might be able to get your phone number with your address. Or you can buy a Road ID. It's a grea way to go. You'll have contact info right on your wrist, shoe or around your neck. But, maybe you don't want to carry any more junk on your runs.

I put my info on my Garmin.

It's not as pretty as a Road ID, but it has all the same info on something I wear already. I overlayed fictious numbers over my home number and my wife's cell phone. A Pos is my blood type. NKDA is for No Know Drug Allergies and I am an organ donor.

I used our brother labeling system to make the water resistant tape. My name and phone number has been on the back of my garmin for over a year, but I added all the rest today.

Hope all you runners are staying safe and carrying some kind of ID. How can you be identified?

Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

I ran on Sunday, but didn't write about it because I bonked around the 1.8 mile mark. I ended up walking a lot and was lucky to get back to my car.

I ran on Monday, but didn't write about it because I bonked around the 1.8 mile mark. I ended up doing some tempo runs, but my time wasn't anything to write home about. Or blog about.

I ran tonight and bonked. You guessed it around the 1.8 mile mark. I'm a slow learner. I've been saying that when your big you don't need to carb load, because you've been carbing your whole life. But, as I limped home I wished I had a GU. What I did have was a Baja Fresh restaurant in front of me. So, I stopped on in and ordered two steak tacos and some chips.

Yep. I had a nice little meal and rested for about 10 minutes. I then ran home. The whole way. Maybe around 3/4 of a mile. My splits were 10:43, 12:12, 15:32 and 11:40, Yeah, 11:40 after my little carb load. And my body had cooled down, but I was still sweaty. So, the run home was kind of cold.

So, do you think the carbs helped? Or was it the rest?

Before the break I was contemplating not running the half marathon this Saturday. If I can't run a short run, can I really run a half mary? After the break I was thinking if I just have enough GU's and eat some carbs the night before I should be fine.

So, the second question is. Should I run the half this weekend?

Chandler Challenge 10k

The Chandler Challenge is a first time event and I was expecting around 200 runners between the 10k and the 5k. There were three times that many runners and both races started at the same time. All the runners ran on the same course, so until the 5k'ers crossed the bridge at the 1.55 mark, it was crowded. This canal is the same canal that the Tumbleweed Running Club runs on, so it was familiar territory.

I started out fast, but comfortable and as you can see my splits went from the 10's to the 12's after mile two. That's when I started taking walk breaks.

This was a fund raiser for Chandler schools, so each elementary school had a team of teachers, parents and students walking, jogging and running. Most did the 5k, so once I was passed the 1.55 mark it got much less crowded. Unfortunately, more people were passing me on the back half of the course, than were being passed. I traded back and forth with a few people, but eventually they pulled away from me too.

I did have enough gas to kick it in gear for the final .2 and did that in a 10:50 mpm pace. I ran 89% of the race, so I just need to improve on that a bit. This was also the lightest I've weighed for a race (216), so that's got to help.


This is the third 10k I've run and the 30th race overall since August of 2006. As you can see in the graph below, it was my slowest 10k. I'll do the Mesa Turkey Trot again next month and hopefully will have a lot more stamina and get closer to my PR. At last years turkey trot I walked .26 miles of the course. Today I walked .67 miles.

Edit: It's actually my fourth 10k. I forgot I ran the New Times Five and Dime last November. That's where you race the 5k and then the 10k event back to back. I got about 10 minutes to rest in between events. I did the 10k portion in about 1:16:xx. So that would be my slowest. I'm doing both races again this November 9th.

On a personal note, my kid Tyler got his drivers license yesterday. He couldn't parallel park my Honda Pilot last week and had to retake the test. Yesterday, we took Amy's Toyota Sienna mini van and he did it on the first try. Then out on the road and after a long wait (it was the DMV after all) he got his new license. We celebrated by eating sushi for lunch, which accounts for my slight weight gain from yesterday. That darn white rice.

Good luck to anyone racing this weekend!

A New Low!

I came back from vacation having gained 8 pounds and weighing 226. Now, six days later I weigh in at

215

42 pounds down from when I started running. Eleven down in just 6 days!

And I'm doing it without counting calories. I'm just restricting my carbs.

And running.

Lately, I've been eating bacon. Sprinkled on a salad or a couple strips for breakfast. I've also been eating peanuts in the shell. They have carbs, but I really like them for a snack. And my new found love is In and Out Double Double Protien style. That means no bun and wrapped in ice berg lettuce.

Picture for Marcy

When I was in Indiana, at an old bookstore near the campus of Purdue University, I thought of Marcy.

A bathroom shot. Or is it a storage room shot. This gives you the chance to pee and bag your own books at the same time. My first bathroom shot, just for Marcy.

Just another run in Paradise

My plan was to pick up the pace over yesterdays run. 4 miles and I wanted to see if I could stay under 11 minutes per mile. The first mile I did it. The rest were not.

I ended up taking a few walk breaks, but still had a pace of 12:13 (11:36 running/ 16:51 walking) over the four miles. Yesterdays pace was 12:14 over five miles.

Tomorrow is a rest day (softball actually), then I have the 10k on Saturday morning.

The Shirt That Races

This shirt is going to be in a race in all 50 states and Canada. If you'd like to run in it or know someone that would, visit the site. Javamom is running in Arizona with it and I'm going to be her trusted assistant.

Random photos from our vacation. Teenagers (mine) abusing the rental car.

A Purdue book store. Do you want the Jelly bellys, Burt's Bees or the poo?


Doesn't matter, cause you can't get in the building.

A Great Run!

I dropped my son off at 'Ninja Practice' and went for a run. Lately I've been able to run 2 to 2.25 miles straight before I've had to take any kind of walk break. Tonight I felt great after 2 miles, so I kept on running. Felt great after 3 miles, so I kept on running. Got on the junior high track and I kept on running. I ran 5.08 miles and a little over 1 hour without any walk breaks and I didn't seem out of breath. My legs felt great and my feet, although tired, felt great.

During my run I saw this chocolate lab running the other way. Nice dog, he didn't try biting me and he looked like he was having a fine time. About 10 minutes later I ran past his owner, looking for him. I told him where I saw him and said I'd keep an eye out for him. I was prepared to catch the poor guy and run him back home.

While I was running around the track I had the pleasure to see the newest Team In Training recruits doing their tempo runs. About 15-20 runners preparing to run either the Rock and Roll Marathon or the half marathon. Good luck Team!

You can click on the chart below to see where I ran. I think the only time I've run so far without a walk break was when I ran the marathon back in January.

We took a hike early during the vacation in a wetlands area. No trails, we had to follow some truck paths and then we had to blaze are on way. Our plan was to go to the Wabash River.

But, as we got closer to the river, the weeds and brush got higher and higher.

I'm in red saying, 'what did I get myself into'. That's Harry Potter with the binoculars. I wish he would have brought his wand instead.

Soon it was over our heads and all kinds of weeds were sticking to our shirts and hair. Pictured are daughter, Emily. Wife, Amy and BIL Doug.

As we got closer, we found lots of posion ivy and we decided to turn around. We never got to see the river. That's my son, Tyler. He and I were in charge of clearing the brush with our feet. Maybe that's were my feet started hurting.

A Good Test Run

Yesterday I tried running. I walked about 200 feet and turned around as my foot was still giving me a little problem. I'm medicating with Ibuprofen, icing and using a tennis ball on my foot like Chad suggested. Tonight I ran. Just two miles around the neighborhood, but it was pain free. I ran at an 11 minute pace and hopefully, if it doesn't hurt in the morning I can do 4 or 5 miles tomorrow.

Here's some pictures from my first run in Indiana. This is the Harry Potter run.

It started out running between the corn rows on a nice flat country road.

I ran past this century farm. It's been in the same family for over 100 years. The name on the mailbox is Ade, which is (I believe) the family that Purdue's football stadium is named after (Ross-Ade Stadium).

Across the street from the farm is the family cemetery. Some of the tombstones were so old you couldn't read them. Many of them were pre 1900 burials. One Ade monument was freshly dug.

As I rounded the corner, I had to contend with a large downhill. This was the view at the bottom. Unfortunately, it had a matching hill that I had to climb later.

My scale is going wako

I'm back in town and my scale is showing the damage. After having dessert every nite of the trip and often after lunch too, my wieght went up 8 pounds. Yes, up to 226. I got in 20 miles, but I was eating like a king and I knew it would show.





I'm back on the Atkins diet and this morning I was already down to 223.5. Eggs, salad and the inside of a beef burrito was my diet yesterday.





My foot feels 100% better, but there is still a little bit of discomfort so I didn't run last night. I'll get a short test run in today and hopefully will be back on the streets in full force this week. I do have a 10k this weekend.

My brother in law, Bob Hunter wrote a book.

He's the sports columnist for the Columbus Dispatch and he wrote a book about Chic Harley, the first great Ohio State football player. I read it on the plane ride home. A great read about a little know all american. If you're into turn of the century history or football, this is well work getting. It's hollywood movie material.

Next up: about our Southwest Airlines flight and vacation pictures.

Hill Street Blues

20 miles of hills may not be what the doctor ordered. It's way more hilly here in Indiana and Ohio than it is in good ole' Chandler. And my right big toe does not like it.

I DNS'd (did not start) today at Tyler's Run. The morning after my 11 miler, my big toe hurt. I didn't know why, since it was fine during the run. The only thing I can think of was that the excessive hills have given me a case of Metatarsalgia. Now the ball of my right foot hurts and I can barely move my big toe.

I ran again in Ohio near my folks home on Thursday. I got 4.5 miles in and some more hills. On Friday, I could barely walk. All my runs have been enjoyable and pain free on this trip, but I didn't want to push it for the race today.

The cure is rest and ice. Hopefully, the airplane trip today won't create any swelling.

Running Indiana

The weather is cool here in Indiana. I've gotten two runs in so far. A four miler in the countryside around the block at my father in laws home. Now, normally my hill work consists of the speed bumps in my neighborhood. Harry, told me to just go north and around the block. I ran a mile north, then headed east to find a really big downhill. I knew that if I went down it, I'd have to come back up eventually. You can see on the graph it was about 120 feet down in less than a quarter mile. Really pretty. I'll have pictures when I get back to AZ. It turned out to be some of the prettiest running scenery I've ever done. But, the uphill was on a busy street with no real place to run. 35 cars passed me and I had to go up 120 feet in about 3/4 of a mile. I wish I would have turned around and just did a little more running in the not so busy streets.



My brother in law Doug did pass me and was nice enough to go into the on coming traffic lane. I guess he knows he's not in my will.



My second run was on Tuesday morning. Today.



We're now at my mother in laws house in West Lafayette, just a short jog from the Purdue U. campus. There's a wonderful trail called the cattail that goes from Purdue north past the Celery Bog (I call it the Celery Blog) and up to Hadley Lake. Again, a beautiful place to run. Lots of asphalt, very little street running and you get to run past lakes, golf courses and corn fields. The corn is feed corn and is dried out about now. It makes an errie sound as it rustles in the wind. I thought there was running water down a mountain stream at times.



This time I had to climb uphill to start the run. It was my long run, so my plan was to run out 5 miles and then turn around. But, I was so close to Hadley Lake, I ended up running out 5.5 miles to see it.



On my return trip I was having some chaffing issues with my nips (that sounds masculine). I had one piece of sticky stuff I use for foot issues. I tore it in half and was about to place it on my chest in the appropriate place when I looked up to see this elderly lady walking in the opposite direction with a "I know what you're doing" grin on her face. I waited til she passed before I tape myself up.



I took some great pictures with my cell phone, but I'm not sure if they'll be any good, since it was overcast. It rained all afternoon and into the evening.


On the diet front, I'm doing horrible. Home cooking here in Indiana is incredible and we've had lots of desserts. And dinner is almost ready tonight. Unfortunately, Ohio cooking will be outstanding too. Lots just cross our fingers and hope that I don't gain too much.



So for the record, four days of vacation and 15 miles run.

It's Time to Fly

I bought two books for our upcoming vacation. I already finished, "What I talk About When I Talk About Running." It's an interesting memoir about a Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami and his love of running. It's more about him and some about running and writing. Interesting, but I wouldn't buy it just for the running stuff.

I'll save Dean Karnazes book for the actual vacation. I'm also reading Gore Vidal's "Lincoln" a historical novel about Abe Lincoln.

I got in a 1.22 mile run today before my softball games. It was a a leisurely pace of 11:11. Then I proceeded to hit well, but field terrible. Not sure why, but I am having trouble with grounders. I might need to visit the eye doctor again.

When I was young, I fell down a flight of stairs. Since then, my eyes have worked independently of each other. Double vision is a constant thing. My kids occasional see my eyes going in different directions and they freak out. It's great for driving. I can look out the front windsield and in the rear view mirror at the same time. I know, weird.

But, not so great for fielding a softball. I've adjusted and did pretty well for the past few years, but recently I can't field a grounder to save my life. Tonight, one took a bad hop and glanced off a part of me that wasn't real protected. Luckily, it was a glancing blow and the ball proceeded out to right field. I ended up on my knee for a few seconds. I stayed in the game.

Tomorrow, our family gets on a plane to fly to Indianapolis. We'll spend some time in West Lafayette with grandpa Harry Potter (yes, that's his real name) and then some time with grandma Cathy Potter. Then we'll drive down to the Queen City to spend some time with grandma and grandpa Monahan. I'll stay on Atkins for the most part and I'll get in as many runs as possible.

I'll try to post some while I'm running back in the midwest.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 5 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Pictures from the Air Force 5k

That's me walking. The Air Force personnel never walked.

If you'd like to see professional pictures from the race I did down at the Pima Air Museum, you should check this out.


Air Force Anniversary 5k slideshow